When to throw away story ideas · 11:35pm Jul 23rd, 2012
TAW wrote a great blog post (except for his barbs at device heretic) about how to choose what to write. I just learned a similar lesson, with my new story "The Detective and the Magician." All the stars lined up for me on this one: It was featured on EqD, and at the very same time, it was the last of a batch of stories to be approved on fimfiction, so it sat at the very top of the "New Stories" page for hours. I thought it would blow through the roof on views.
It did not. It got fewer views than my past 3 or 4 stories did on their first day out. I blame much of this on the boring title and the boring description.
In the movie business, if you have a script, you need to have a catchy title ("Cowboys and Aliens") or a snappy one-line summary ("It's The Terminator meets Groundhog Day"). Writers often think this shows how shallow producers are. But producers know that they can't get BIS (butts in seats) without something they can write on a poster that will make people come watch the movie.
Stories are the same way. "The Detective and the Magician" is a much better story than "Twilight Sparkle and the Quest for Anatomical Accuracy". The people who read D&M liked it better. But many more people read TS&Q4AA. (You're tempted to click on that link, aren't you? You filthy-minded reprobate.)
So I was looking over a list of titles of Sherlock Holmes stories, looking for something snappy to steal. And I noticed that Doyle wrote a lot of intriguing titles that make you want to read the story to find out what it means: "The red-headed league." "The Man with the Twisted Lip." "The Engineer's Thumb." "The Six Napoleons." I also realized it was too late for me to make a snappy title for my story. Doyle didn't come up with snappy titles afterwards. He could make a snappy title because he wrote a story that had something strange and intriguing happen in the first scene.
There are 2 lessons there. Feel free to ignore them, just as soon as you have 1000 followers. One: Throw away your story idea unless you can make it open with something intriguing. Two: Throw away your story idea unless you can write a one-sentence movie-poster summary that would make people want to read it.
I don't usually follow this advice myself. But I probably ought to.
I think you are right that these are great ways to get views.
However, though I do greatly adore my readers and their opinions, I write a story because "I" want the story to be written.
246283
I'm not saying to write stories that you don't want to be written. The key point in TAW's post is that there are probably many stories you'd like to write - more than you can ever get around to writing. So write the stories that are in the intersection of what you'd like to write, and what other people would like to read.
I'm kind of disappointed. 'The Detective and the Magician' caught me with its title. 'A Scandal in Equestria' wouldn't have. Since I've already gotten started on reading it, I'll stick it through, but it's odd to see a change and know that you never would have given something a second look if it'd been that way from the beginning.
246994
'The Detective and the Magician' did terribly as a title. I also used "The Case of the Starry Night" on fanfiction.net. Both titles drew very few views on fanfiction.net compared to my other stories; less than one-twentieth as many as "Twilight Sparkle and the Quest for Anatomical Accuracy" or "Big Mac Reads Something Purple". But 'A Scandal in Equestria' isn't working well either. Do you have any ideas?
The weirdest thing was that people coming from Equestria Daily weren't reading the story. The EqD page linked to the fimfiction story page, which had the same title, same picture, and the same description. People would click on link from EqD to fimfiction, but then they wouldn't click on the first chapter. I had 700 incoming referrals from EqD, but only about 200 of them read the first chapter. I can't figure out why.
I asked the blog maintainers to change the link to go directly to the first chapter, so now views are picking up a little. But I already missed 500 readers.
247370
*checks your story list* Huh. I don't think I knew you wrote Twilight Sparkle and the Quest for Anatomical Accuracy. It is indeed a very eyecatching title. Aside from 'The Detective and the Magician', it's the only other story of yours I've read. I'm not a fan of it... but we're talking about titles, not writing. (Some of the other stories just went into my Read Later list.)
Assuming my memory isn't faulty, it is currently the case that both times I've read one of your stories I spotted a title that sounded unusual and was drawn in for a closer look. Yet you say that 'The Detective and the Magician' didn't do well. I don't know how you measure that, so I'll take your word on it. 'The Case of the Starry Night' wouldn't have got me either. Reviewing my story list and trying to remember the circumstances under which I found each title in it, I'd call out 'A Teacher with No Class', 'Petriculture', and 'Apotheosis' as some other fics which caught my attention due to their titles. There are a few others, but these are the ones that I simply had to read as soon as I saw their titles. In the case of 'A Teacher with No Class', this is especially interesting as I actually struggled with the story. It is modestly out of my usual preferences. I was simply so amused by the title that I had to know the story under it (and I went on to read both of its sequel stories as well, the second of which is still in progress).
All three of these titles refer to characters in a rather pithy manner. Blueblood, Pinkie Pie, and the Princesses are stamped right there in the titles. (Apotheosis is slightly misleading, as it is about only one of the Princesses, but I don't think the confusion harmed it at all.) Your title 'The Detective and the Magician' was similarly stamped with Trixie (as the only magician character likely to catch the interest of a detective), but who was the detective? That's what drew me in for a second look. That's probably why 'The Case of the Starry Night' and 'A Scandal in Equestria' seem so unfavorable to me, too. They say nothing about who the actors in the story are, and very little about what happens to those actors. The problem with 'The Detective and the Magician' may well be that my mind is strange and subtle, and the average reader does not immediately leap from that title to assuming Trixie is in legal trouble.
The two titles you're calling out as being much more eye-catching have names in them. I'd say characters are key, at least within this fandom, and your title has to speak to the characters you're using and/or the characterizations you're giving them. Your title has to say you care about characterization. The best fics on this site are the ones that portray their characters best, not the ones with the most riveting plots.
I wouldn't recommend putting names right there in the titles of all your fics. Just try to cleverly imply something about the personalities present.
As a final disclaimer, I'm doing my best, but I can't swear my advice is sound. I've never actually published any stories. I have one that I'm holding onto and may publish eventually. If you're curious, the current working title of the work is 'Tenterei the Discordant'.
247411
"The two titles you're calling out as being much more eye-catching have names in them. I'd say characters are key, at least within this fandom, and your title has to speak to the characters you're using and/or the characterizations you're giving them. Your title has to say you care about characterization. The best fics on this site are the ones that portray their characters best, not the ones with the most riveting plots."
Pretty astute for a party pony. I'll remember that.
247422
Ah! The name was just me being silly. I don't really get to many parties. The few I find my way to usually resemble tea ceremonies more than revels. I do hope I helped in some way, though.
Alternatively, instead you could throw away your concern over how many people look at your story.
Admittedly, that might be hard with the amount of feedback the site provides and the reinforcing nature of attention.